Sally Hawkins agreed to do The Shape of Water before reading the script

The Maudie star also noted that she was pleasantly surprised by the way Guillermo wrote the screenplay of the movie, when she read the script.

“It’s monster-led but it’s more ‘Beauty and the Beast’, as it were. It’s a love story. But he’s not really a beast. He’s a beautiful creature that she falls in love with. He’s part man, part fish. The film is extraordinary! I feel very lucky to have worked with Guillermo. It’s quite an unusual part, and it’s storytelling on an epic scale,” noted Hawkins.

Sally Hawkins, who learned sign language while doing the play Constellations, noted that she had to revisit speaking in sign language for her role.

“It’s like learning a different language and you’re never going to do it justice just sort of doing a crash course. You’re still going to have the hangup of accent. Even if you are doing it for a year, it won’t be enough. Just like that wouldn’t be enough to speak French fluently. You’d still give yourself away with an accent,” explained Hawkins.

But, Hawkins believes that this made the role even more interesting for her.

‘The Shape of Water’ focuses on Elisa, a mute isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank.

As Elisa develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.

The movie has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes this year, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Hawkins) and a Best Director nod for Guillermo Del Toro.